Are you as excited as I am? What started with a mysterious airplane crash and some seemingly senseless numbers typed in by a stranger sitting in a hatch in the ground will finally find its conclusion during the upcoming eight episodes of LOST (ten if you haven't seen the two that aired yesterday.) How will it end, what's going to happen next? Discuss here!

As most of you already know, Haiti was hit with a massive earthquake recently that ravaged most of the island's capital and surrounding areas. Many have died, and even more are in desperate need of help.

We as gamers can do something about it. The easiest way would be to text the word "HAITI" (minus the quotes) to 90999 via your mobile phone. $10 will appear on your phone bill as a donation to the American Red Cross towards the Haiti relief efforts.

Read about more ways you can help after the break.

You can also donate via iTunes: (clicking link will open iTunes) https://buy.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/buyCharityGiftW...

On Wednesday and Thursday (January 20 & 21, respectively), Bungie is encouraging Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST players to don a Haitian-relief emblem in game, and will contribute up to $77,000 to the cause depending on the number who participate. A special T-shirt also is for sale in the Bungie store, the proceeds of which will go to recovery efforts through the American Red Cross. Link: http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=news&cid=24356

If you're aware of online scammers and whatnot (nothing wrong with that) then check out Lifehacker's site and read how to avoid such things and knowing who to really donate to. Link: http://lifehacker.com/5447987/how-and-where-to-donate-to-haiti-and-avoid...

Halo comes to the PS3! Every Xbox 360 fanboy's worst nightmare come true, amirite?

Well, sort of. Halo Legends, while not a game, is a collection of short animated stories based on the Halo universe. What makes this particularly interesting is that they're all made by some of Japan's most famous animation houses.

The U.S. release date is February 9th, 2010. It will come in 3 flavors: single disc DVD (MSRP $19.99) double disc special edition DVD (MSRP $29.99) and a PS3 version...I mean Bluray version...that comes with everything the 2 disc DVD has and more (MSRP $34.99).

I will bet that both PS3 and Xbox 360 fans are both happy that this is the only way Halo will ever come to the PS3. Ever.

Check out the official website for more information: http://halo.xbox.com/en-us/halolegends

Happy New Year! 2009 is now behind us and we have a clear path to 2010. What type of gaming plans do you have for the year? Why not discuss it with us in the forums? Come on over to http://www.neotaku.com/forum/ and chit chat with us for the rest of 2010 and onward!

From all of us at Neotaku, have a great holiday season, regardless of what you celebrate.

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OK, so picture this: you're making a game. It's a sequel. In fact, it's a highly anticipated addition to an almost spotless series, and is in particular the direct follow on from one of the best received games, both commercially and critically, of the past 5 years. What you have here is essentially a license to print money: a game that will sell like hotcakes made by Jesus himself, almost regardless of the quality of the game itself. So what do you do?

Well, I'll tell you what you don't do: don't ask Activision Blizzard for advice.

I am, of course, referring to Modern Warfare 2. A game that was destined to be a bestseller before it was even announced, but which the company seem determined to drive into the ground. Let's take a look at what they've done:

 1) The price hike.

They could potentially have got away with this a few years ago, but we're facing the worst economic situation since before most of your target audience was even born, so now is not the time to raise the RRP of your game. Heck, they could even probably have got away with it if they'd just done it quietly: when people got to the counter on release day, they'd have been annoyed at having to shell out an extra few dollars, but by that point it'd be too late, they'd buy it anyway. Rather than take this route, however, Activision Blizzard decided the best thing to do would be to shout about it months in advance, just to make sure people have enough time to get annoyed about it. Sure a lot of people will still buy it despite this, but they will lose a number of sales, no doubt. If nothing else, it'll drive a lot of people to wait and buy it second hand for less - which, considering how much development companies moan about second hand sales, you'd think would be something they'd want to avoid.

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We were promised this year's E3 would be a big one, and it certainly didn't disappoint, with a strong showing from each of the 3 major companies, including new Wii-rivalling full motion control systems from both Sony and Microsoft. There were a great number of surprises too, not least of which was a new Metal Gear Solid game for the 360 - though not necessarily the game fans have been waiting for!

If you missed the press conferences, don't fret! Every detail (well, nearly every detail) of Microsoft and Sony's conferences was hastily scribbled down on our forums as the conferences were happening. And even better, unlike the so-called "professional" gaming sites, our reports are fully subjective, and liberally sprinkled with personal bias and "humourous" observations about the people presenting the games.

So head into the forums now to check out the E3 news.

...Oh, alright, I'll make it easy for you, just because I care. The Microsoft conference summary can be found here, and the you can read the Sony one here.

P.S: First time visiting neotaku.com? Have a look over here to find out who we are, and why you should care!

...playing videogames, that is.